I'm a firm believer that the bad news should come first. So here goes.
I chickened out. I decided running at the river last night was just too cold. So I returned to the gym for a treadmill jaunt. I ran my three miles while watching "Law and Order" (NOT the Food Network). Part of me feels like a wimp for skipping, but many family members and friends urged me to be sensible.
Now for the good news! After the gym, I made it to the nutrition meeting at RunnersWorld. I learned so much. It was awesome.
Here are some tips from sports dietitian Sloan Taylor:
• Carbs are not evil. This is great news for me because I love carbs: bread, pasta, bagels, fruit, beans and corn. Yum! Those training for (half)marathons should eat at least one carb at each meal, Taylor says. Count me in! The night before you run 10 miles or more, you should "carb load," or eat a dinner of pretty much all carbs. I can't wait! Spaghetti with red sauce, here I come.
• Breakfast is important, especially on race day. Even if it's just a piece of bread, breakfast gets your metabolism going. Coffee does not count. This won't be hard for me. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.
• Do NOT skip meals. Even if you aren't hungry, you should not skip meals, Taylor says. This slows the body's metabolism.
• You can — and should — eat DURING a race. When running long distances (more than 10 miles), runners should snack. RunnersWorld sells carb gels, but Taylor likes variety, so she eats jelly beans, PayDay candy bars and granola on the trail. She made marathons sound like trick-or-treating for adults.
• Everyone needs at least 1,200 calories a day. Starving yourself is silly, especially if you're in a distance-running training program. And it's OK if your body is hungrier than usual during training. It's burning more calories, so it makes sense that it needs more calories.
• Weightloss is another good-news/bad-news situation. The bad news: Women likely will not lose weight during a training program. Their body-fat composition will change, making their clothes fit more loosely (YAY!), but the scale is not likely to reflect that change. The good news: Men typically notice weightloss...immediately. The world isn't fair.
Those are the highlights.
Saturday morning is my six-mile run. That is farther than I have ever run at once before. I'm nervous. Terrified.
It's going to be cold.
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Great Blog Jenny. That sucks about the break in. I hop eI never catch one of these thieves. If I ever do, I have a feeling I might get arrested for how bad I beat the living crap out of him. I am going to link your blog to the RunnersWorld Blog if that is OK?
ReplyDeleteBrian Hoover
Yes. Please do! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSee you Saturday.
Hi Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI'm Ken aka TZ which is an abbreviation. I am one of the group leaders at RW....leading the 12-13 m/m pace for the beginners marathons. I am sure our paces will be around the same and we'll bump into each other several times in the coming months. I do the RunnersWorld blog, and have linked your blog to it. You'll no doubt get quite a few readers as you document your progress. I also do the trail_zombie blog which is my own musings of my personal running stuff and outlook on life. I do the FasterThahOprah blog as well, which is the name of my Saturday pace group. (No, we're not faster than....she actually ran a 4:27 marathon some years back, and that's faairly fast!)
Dress warmly....it's gonna be an experience Saturday!
See ya then!
Hey Jenny. You have no idea who I am, but I am also in the RW half-marathon training program. I found your blog on the Facebook page and before I followed you on blogspot I wanted to write you something to make sure you know I'm not a creep! Haha. Good luck with training!
ReplyDeleteMaegen Little